Game #2
Series: Montreal Canadiens 1, Caps 0
TV: Comcast SportsNet; Radio: 106.7 FM
The Caps will go with a revamped lineup tonight when they host the Canadiens in Game 2 of their Stanley Cup playoff first-round series at Verizon Center. Expect to see Brendan Morrison back in the lineup at center. Bruce Boudreau wouldn’t confirm that at the morning skate, but Boyd Gordon joined Scott Walker and Quintin Laing on the ice after the skate. That likely means he’s the odd-man out. Defensemen Tyler Sloan and John Erskine also stayed on the ice so those pairings should stay the same. Jose Theodore is back in goal.
So what does that mean for the lineup? Boudreau likely goes with Morrison as the second-line center, drops Tomas Fleischmann to third-line winger and pushes Jason Chimera to the fourth line. We could see Eric Belanger and David Steckel flip-flop, too, with Steckel on the third line. As Boudreau pointed out in his pregame talk with the media, enough of his players spent the last month in different combinations and they can adjust.
Players again said there is no panic in the dressing room. When asked what was going to happen tonight — if he could put his first ever no-shot, no-point game behind him — Alex Ovechkin just smiled and said “I don’t know either.”
“I’m ready to go. This is what you play for — especially when you get old,” Morrison said. “Obviously the regular season is important But there’s nothing that compares to the playoffs.”
Morrison — who watched from high above the Verizon Center ice as a healthy scratch — credited Montreal for playing a good road game on Thursday in its 3-2 overtime win, but said the Caps would make the necessary adjustments. Center Nicklas Backstrom disagreed with Ovechkin’s assertion that there was little space on Thursday thanks to Montreal’s defensive gameplan, where it sometimes seemed as if the Canadiens had two players covering each.
“That’s normal, I think. [Ovechkin] plays 82 games like that. I feel like he always plays against the best d-men on the other team. So it’s not an excuse. It’s not about Montreal. We have to get better — everybody. And hopefully we can get some more opportunties to score.”
Add Backstrom to the list of players who say the Caps need more traffic in front of Montreal goalie Jaroslav Halak: “That’s playoff hockey. You score in front of the goal. That’s where you’re going to have the rebounds.”
